It was announced today through several media outlets that the Detroit Lions have restructured the contracts of quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Nate Burleson and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.

Through their actions, this will free up enough money to get the Lions under the salary cap.

At first glance, this appears to be a very selfless act done by three veteran leaders that want to improve their team.

By reworking their deals, they basically extend their own job security by making their contract more of a hit to the team in future years should the team decide to cut them.

You might be asking, "how does that work?"

Basically, NFL salaries are non-guaranteed. Unless otherwise specified, the only part of a contract that is guaranteed are bonuses.

So by converting these non-guaranteed yearly contracts into signing bonuses that are prorated over the life of the contract, this increases the salary cap hit the Lions would incur if they were to cut these players.

Now obviously, Stafford and Suh aren't going anywhere, but Burleson is a little less of an impact player.

That being said, he still is a productive, veteran wide receiver that should continue to help this team.

Another tricky bit of business still persists, and that is just how much money these actions have cleared up.

It appears that the Lions basically cleared up $6.5 million from Suh, about $7 million from Stafford and probably about $3 million from Burleson.

That roughly is about $16 million.

Good news, right?

Not so fast.

Now consider that the Lions were an estimated $11.5 million over the cap, and that windfall of cash turns into only about $5 million.